New Year's Tins
by Mikila94
Summary: Robin spends the New Year with Dragon and his two men, wondering what the future will bring.


**A.N: Something for New Year... now that I think about it, this is my fourth New Year in row of writing something with Sabo and Robin... and thanks to the newest manga chapters I hope others will realize the greatness of SaRo too :p**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

**New Year's Tins**

It was snowing, which was rare in Baltigo. It wasn't really that cold and the members of the revolution army were pretty much used to cold with all the wind that their lands had, but that didn't stop them from cursing at the frost.

"-5 Celsius isn't really that cold" Robin pointed out to the complaining revolution leader as she walked towards the eastern parts of Baltigo with him and two others "In Drum it can easily get below -40 Celsius at night."

"That place is called Sakura Kingdom now" pointed out their blond companion, youngest of the four of them "And it's rare to hear boss complaining about anything, so just deal with it."

"I'm not complaining, Sabo" Dragon disagreed "I was just saying."

"Right" Sabo said with a roll of his eyes, earning a light whack on the head from his boss "Ow!"

Robin, knowing that it would take a while for the two men to quit their bickering, turned her attention to another woman of the group. Her name was Koala; she was somewhat shy woman skilled with fishman karate. Robin didn't know much about her; she was curious but didn't want to pry, especially since even the usually so talkative and open Nora wouldn't really tell much. Of course there was a chance that the red head didn't know much, but Robin found it hard to believe. The chance that Koala's background was a forbidden subject just like Sabo's was much more likely. What interested but also bothered Robin the most about the other woman was her behavior towards her. She wasn't rude; quite the opposite actually. She just seemed to become much more quiet and nervous with Robin around. Plus, whenever she was around the blond seemed to have an urge to go and clean something.

"She just is like that around new people" had been Sabo's answer when she had asked about it.

"She's nervous around new people; especially around you who she has learned to know as the light of the revolution." had been Dragon's explanation. That was understandable, she supposed, but she would have preferred to be treated like a normal person. Not that she complained; she's had it much worse. Deciding to try to start a conversation, she asked: "Where exactly are we going?"

"To a small cottage in the woods" Koala answered "Only few even know about it, so it's quite peaceful there."

"Yeah" Sabo joined in to the conversation "Boss goes there to sulk from time to ti- hey!"

"It might not look like it most of the time, but they're really close" Koala told Robin as she saw her watching the two men that were bickering once again "That's just their way of showing their affection to each other."

"I think I know what you mean" Robin said, recalling the fights of the cook and the first mate of their ship "But if that goes on things will get bloody."

"T-that's right" Koala realized "I should stop them... or at least clean up the blood... or-"

"Cut it out, Koala" Sabo interrupted "Everything's okay."

"Oh, right" Koala said, scratching her head. Sabo sighed in relief while Dragon just shook his head.

"Try not to say those things around her" Sabo whispered to Robin "She'll get nervous and confused which will lead to a cleaning fit."

"I suppose you're right" Robin said. She didn't really like prying, but tried to do it anyway "Do you know why that might be?"

Sabo glanced at Robin from the corner of his eye. A long silence followed before he finally answered: "It is not my place to tell you."

The answer didn't satisfy Robin, but she respected Sabo's decision. It really wasn't his place to tell; if she wanted to know she'd have to find out from Koala herself.

"_But there's no need to rush; I still have a year and half left here."_

XXXXX

When they got to the cottage, Koala immediately ran to the kitchen while Sabo started to light the oven.

"There's something you might want to see" Dragon told Robin and they exited from the back door to the woods. After walking for a quite while they faced a giant, square stone covered in snow.

"Is this...?"

"I don't know" Dragon admitted, brushing off some snow "I've seen a few poneglyphs before and I'd say this stone is of same material, but there's nothing written on it."

Dragon could see the disappointment in her eyes, but said nothing. Instead he just watched as she walked over, taking a glove off of her hand and feeling the surface of the rock.

"It is indeed the same substance as the poneglyphs" Robin said after a long silence "But there's really nothing on it?"

Dragon was about to answer, but was beat to it by Koala saying: "There is."

"There is?" Dragon said, surprised. He had checked the thing over and over again for years, yet he never found anything "Where?"

"Right in the very bottom" Koala said, walking over to where Robin was and kneeling down. She dug some snow away from the very bottom of the stone and there was indeed some text in the ancient language.

"What does it say?" Dragon asked a while after Robin had kneeled down but not said anything "Is it even a poneglyph?"

"It is" Robin confirmed "However, the text is upside down and the fact that there's only a little text on the bottom can only mean two things."

"Whoever was writing it was stopped by someone or something and the whole poneglyph has been turned upside down." Dragon voiced her thoughts "Koala, why haven't you pointed out the text before?"

"I'm sorry" the woman said "I found it once when I was cleaning up the area and thought nothing of it back then, so... uh... maybe I should clean up all the snow..."

"No need for that" Dragon said with a sigh. He was well aware of Koala's habit of starting to clean up if she was nervous or confused and he more or less knew why she did so, but it did get annoying from time to time "It's good that you told us now."

"Indeed, it was a good timing" Robin agreed "Thank you Koala."

"It was nothing... I-I should clean up all this snow" Robin sweat dropped at the younger woman's stuttering and Dragon sighed in annoyance; she'd never stop that.

XXXXX

Later in the evening Sabo suddenly declared it was time to cast some horse shoe shaped tin.

"Excuse me?" Robin questioned. Sure she knew about the tradition of casting tin on New Year's Eve and predicting the future from its shape, but she didn't expect they'd do it here. She didn't take any of her three companions as that type of people.

"It's an old tradition of ours, and its fun" Sabo said "It's not like any of us take the seeing in the future thing seriously, tough."

"But there's really no point in it, is there?" she asked. Sabo rolled his eyes, answering: "It's _fun, _and _that's _the _point._ As a pirate you should know how to have fun."

"I suppose so" Robin admitted, playing with the thought of doing this with her crew mates and wondering who'd take it seriously and who wouldn't.

"I think our quest should have the honor of doing the first one" Dragon said, handing the glove and the scoop with the tin inside of it to Robin "Surely you know how to do this?"

"Of course" Robin said. She'd never casted tin herself or seen it done, but one didn't need to be a genius to do it... but then again, her captain probably wouldn't be able to do it. No offence to him, but he was an idiot. She put the scoop in the almost died down fire, waiting for the tin shoe to melt. She wasn't sure how long she was supposed to keep it there, so she kept an eye on Sabo's face. The second he looked like he was about to say something she dumped the melted tin to a water bucket; not giving Sabo a chance to point out that she should do it now. And judging from the face he was making he knew exactly what she'd done.

"Wipe that satisfied smirk off of your face" he grumbled and she just laughed. If she said making fun of him wasn't one of her favorite pastimes she'd be lying.

"I have no idea what you're talking about" Robin said innocently, handing the scoop and the glove to Koala as she moved to take the pieces from the water bucket. After the blond girl it was Sabo's turn and then Dragon´s. When everyone was ready they moved to inspect the melted pieces of tin.

"Yours looks like a big tree" Sabo commented as he saw Robin's piece of tin. She agreed, a wave of nostalgia washing over her. But weren't these things supposed to tell about the future, not past? She glanced at Sabo's pieces of tin, saying with a straight face: "Yours looks like a man split in half."

"Indeed it does" Dragon agreed before Sabo could protest "I wonder what it could mean?"

"A violent death, perhaps" Robin said, the smile still present on her face "If you do die during the next year I'll be sure to visit your grave."

"You two are horrible" Sabo said, eyebrow twitching "What do you think, Koala?"

"It does look like a person cut in half" Koala said as she too looked over. Robin giggled as the blond man made his way to sulk in to a corner "Maybe it means you'll be facing a hard decision next year?"

"Huh?"

"You know, two things pulling you in to different directions" Koala said "And you need to make a choice between those two things, a choice that might affect the rest of your life."

"She might be right" Robin said "It's either that or a sign of your soon to come death."

"Oh shut up already" Sabo hissed at her "I ain't dying before I get to dance on your graves!"

"That might be true" Robin said, the smile still in place. The others sweat dropped, feeling awkward. Only Robin goes around saying things like that.

"S-so boss, what does yours look like?" Sabo asked, wanting to change the subject.

"I'd say it looks like a ship" Dragon said. Robin looked too, stating: "Maybe it means your ship will sink next year?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

Sabo leaned closer to Robin, whispering: "Whatever just don't say that dark stuff to Koala; otherwise she'll be cleaning the whole next year."

"Is that so?"

"Yes it is" Dragon answered quietly, joining the conversation "Sabo tested it once; didn't end well."

Robin sweat dropped, coming to the conclusion that being weird was a condition that needed to be filled in order to join the revolution army.

"What do you think mine looks like? I can't make anything out of it..." Koala asked, holding her own piece of tin in front of her. Robin was about say axe but the quick glare from Sabo and the stern look from Dragon were enough to make her think again. Maybe Koala really wasn't the best person to say that to.

"It looks like a broom" is what the dark haired woman settled on. The men sighed in relief only to fall over as Koala stated: "Maybe that means I need to clean more next year."

"Maybe" Robin said with a sweat drop. Some things will just end up in a certain way no matter what you do.

**A.N: People probably know this already, but it's actually lead what they're casting, not tin. I have no idea why but it's always been called tin around here, so tin it is. By the way, what do people usually do on New Year in different countries? Here in Finland there really aren't any traditions other than shooting rockets and casting tin. Anyway, Sabo and the others might be a bit OOC, but we don't really know much about them so that can be my excuse. And I remember Hachi saying something about Koala starting to clean every time she was confused (or something like that) so I decided to try how it would look like if she hadn't gotten rid of that habit... but don't take this one shot too seriously; it's simply for fun.**

**P.S: In case someone's interested I'll try to write much more SaRo next year (my New Year's promise!) and I'll try to come up with something for Koala, too. But don't be expecting any SaboXKoala from me... probably.**


End file.
